


The Dusty Saddle

by BubuBORG



Series: Team Medi: Discord Prompts [7]
Category: Gravity Falls, Multi-Fandom, Star Trek, TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Gen, Tolkien Discord Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 07:11:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16154147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BubuBORG/pseuds/BubuBORG
Summary: Mike and Joy Gamling talk about times past on a lazy day.





	The Dusty Saddle

**Author's Note:**

> For the Tolkien Discord Prompt.
> 
> This takes place just shortly before "Stan Vs. The Future".

He was much older than her, Mike thought.Not for the first time. 

But he got around that, once he got a hold of that elixir they were giving the Master of Bag End.

When he made his appearance in Limbo, no one said much about it, Not even Josh.

But he did catch the girl’s eye all the same.

 

That seemed so long ago.

 

Rohan, even longer. 

 

Now it was all about Theo and Joy and their cabin in the Oregon woods.

 

The sword hung above the mantel.He kept it in good order, even though it was a glorified knickknack now. 

 

“Mike, baby?” Joy’s voice came from the kitchen.

 

“Yeah!” his voice was a bit creaky still, but then again, he didn’t knock that much age off himself.

“Go grab Theo’s bottle for me?”

 

Mike complied.Joy was at the table, Theo in his high chair.It was his own from growing up in Mojave.The design of the mesa and the cowboy on top of his mount was unmistakably his; It was almost the same design stitched on his saddle.

 

It was the same saddle that rode him on the road to Helm’s deep.The same one that would take him to the Pelennor Fields as well.

He bequeathed his mare Nerene to the King of the Mark, but he kept that saddle, by damn.

Had to give it to Theo, after all.

Joy proceeded to wash out the bottle and refill it with juice. He leaned by the door frame and watched her get Theo’s dinner ready.His nose wrinkled at the thought.That was no way to do chicken, he thought.He tired the baby food once. _Once_. 

 

“Kind of quiet, over there,” Joy observed. 

“Yeah…just thinking,” Mike said.

 

“About Adam visiting?” Joy asked.“Old times?”

“Something like that,” Mike replied.“Thinking about my old saddle.”

Joy put the baby spoon down.“You should go down to Mojave,” she said.“Get some riding in.”

“I was thinking about it,” Mike agreed.“Saddles are like baseball gloves.The more you use them, the better they work.”

“If you say so,” Joy muttered.“No, seriously, we could make an outing of it.Go to the park, let this guy see some grass instead of this Northwestern jungle…Maybe even invite Dad?”

“Didn’t you say you wanted to take riding lessons?” Mike cajoled.

“Ehhhhhh,” Joy hemmed.“I might have?”

“See, don’t worry,” Mike said, moving to her, putting a hand on the high chair.“You gotta understand, I taught like dozens of little scruffy-bearded boys how to ride in the Riddermark.You are a lovely piece of cake.”

“But galloping and falling and hooves…” Joy whined.“Not every girl is in love with horses.This girl fell in love with robots.”

“And wouldn’t a four-legged robot have advantages?” Mike pressed.“Field research requires you figure this out.”

Joy turned and gave her husband a look.Not quite respect, but definitely acknowledgement of his argument.“Well played, Mike Gamling.”

“Why, thank you, Joy Gamling.”

 

A silent moment passed.Joy put a spoonful to Theo, who gulped it down less than enthusiastically.Joy turned back to her husband.

 

“Do you miss it?”She asked.

 

“What?”Mike said, keeping his eye on the baby.

 

“Rohan.Being a Marshal.”

 

Mike was quiet for a time, thinking it over.“I think sometimes I remember those days with a fondness that time and distance can afford you,” he said finally.“Like remembering high school or something like that.”

“Okay.” Joy said, continuing to feed Theo.

“There were good days, and there were rough days.Feasts and famine.The day that that slippery little man poisoned my king’s mind was not a good day.But the days watching Éomer and Éowyn and Théodred grow up and become their own people, like little Théodred here is doing now…those were good.” 

“Do you feel like you’re drifting away?” She asked.

“Well, those days have already passed,” Mike argued.“That’s how it works.Time passes, and distance and circumstances change.I’m a retired Marshal of the Mark, and now I’m your hubby.”He moved around the high chair and squeezed her shoulder. 

“We could go back some day,” Joy suggested.“If we ever get tired of Oregon, we could move to Meduseld and, depending on how old the kid is…”

“Yeah, we could,” Mike agreed.“I could resume my duties to Eomer, you could create horse-robots, Theo could learn how to speak Rohirrim.But I like Oregon right now.”

“I do too.I like this house,” Joy said, sing-song, to Theo as he continued to be fed.“I like our totem pole.I like being out in the middle of nowhere, where Adam and that girlfriend he has yet to introduce to us, has to travel out of their way to get here.I like Pinesville.Nice people.

“And you like that little bit of mystery about the place,” Mike added.“Joy loves a mystery, Theo,” he said, ruffling the baby’s hair.

“Joy does,” Joy agreed. 

 

 

 

And, as Adam got ready to visit his sister and brother-in-law from his ship in orbit, down below the town of Pinesville, a figure in a chamber continued to slumber.

 

Waiting for his wake-up call.


End file.
